In Search Of A Ghostly Village And Discovering A Lost Quarry Instead

It was a good plan. I would explore Maromas, Middletown's last frontier, in search of the remnants of a village that was swallowed up in the 1950s by the construction of the Connecticut Advanced Nuclear Engineering Laboratory – the predecessor of today's Pratt and Whitney plant.

My path into the great unknown would be the Connecticut Forest and Park Association's Mattabesett Trail, the eastern terminus of the New England Trail – a path that winds through the state from Long Island Sound into Massachusetts to the New Hampshire border. Here I would find the old stone walls of Maromas farms or the old, crumbling foundations of Maromas homes.

It was a good plan until I found myself wandering off the trail down a path carved out by all-terrain vehicles. It took me to part of the Cockaponsett State Forest and one of my natural world favorites -- an abandoned quarry. Abandoned quarries were the playground of my youth and have always held a special place in my memories and my heart.

My playground was the Strickland Quarry in Portland where I would spend my days walking the rim of the mine, mesmerized by its clear blue waters and the sparkling cliffs from which older kids dove. Nearby a huge pile of tailings reached into the sky with the manmade mountain providing scenic views of the Connecticut River valley.

But the quarries of my youth are disappearing quickly. My playground is now know as Quarry Ridge Golf Course, the hole now buried and the pile of tailings spread around the 18-hole course. Portland's famous brownstone quarry is now a water park and Maromas' largest quarry is now home to Kleen Energy's natural gas plant, where the Mattabesett snakes behind.

Fortunately, out to the southeast of the trail, is an old granite quarry still largely in its working state. The area was known for its granite with the nearby Arnold Quarry in Haddam supplying much of the curbing and bridge stone to New Orleans as well as shipping it to Boston, Rhode Island, New York City and Baltimore.

It's unclear what the name of this quarry was or where its granite went, but it's one of the best-preserved examples in the state. A dilapidated building made of huge chunks of granite sits still on the banks of a pond where the tailings were dumped. A jetty of huge granite tailings juts out into the pond. And nearby the surface of the deep, cold waters of the quarry hole reflect the high stone walls.

Upon returning to the path, the trail travels past Asylum Reservoir No. 1 and Asylum Reservoir No. 2. These picturesque bodies of water surrounded by white pines and mountain laurel were dug by hand in the late 1800s and early 1900s to provide water for what was then called the Hospital for the Insane (today it is known as Connecticut Valley Hospital).

The difficult ascents and descents are worth it for the overlooks and rocky outcroppings glistening with quartz crystals, as are the views of Middletown and the surrounding hillsides of Middlefield, Durham and Haddam. The overlook across Reservoir No. 1 is a must-see.

Although my search for the ghost village of Maromas wasn't successful, I did discover an untouched flooded quarry – a rarity in this state – that if unprotected will become ghosts themselves.

Parking for the main trailhead is along River Road across from the entrance to the NRG plant. The western end of the reservoir trail can be accessed by taking Route 154 to Brooks Road and parking at Asylum Reservoir No. 2. Visit http://newenglandtrail.org/get-on-the-trail/ct-net-section-01-mattabesett-trail for a map of the area. Peter Marteka can be reached at 860-647-5365, at pmarteka@courant.com or at The Courant, 200 Adams St., Manchester, CT 06040.